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Anthony Roberson was selected in the second round by the Fort Wayne Mad Ants.
Chris Covatta (NBAE/Getty)
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After taking Jeremy Richardson with their No. 1 pick – the second in the four-team expansion draft that included unprotected players from other D League teams and all players from the defunct Fort Worth and Arkansas franchises – the Mad Ants took Anthony Roberson and Olu Famutimi, two Michigan high school products, in the second and third rounds.
In the ninth round, Fort Wayne took a player with even closer toes to the Pistons, Walker Russell Jr., son of former Pistons journeyman Walker D. Russell and nephew of Cleveland Cavaliers great Campy Russell, an All-American at Michigan in the 1970s. Russell was a member of the Pistons’ Las Vegas Summer League team that went 4-1 in July.
Roberson played at Saginaw High before starring for three years at the University of Florida. He played briefly for Golden State last season before hooking on with Arkansas, averaging 16.7 points a game. Famutimi, who played at Flint Northwestern before being recruited to Arkansas by former Michigan State assistant Stan Heath, averaged 11.5 for the D-League’s Arkansas team last season.
Richardson, who has spent parts of the last two seasons in the NBA with Portland and Atlanta, averaged 17.6 points for Forth Worth. He’ll compete for minutes at shooting guard with Famutimi and, quite likely, with Pistons second-round pick Sammy Mejia, who is expected to split time between Detroit and Fort Wayne.
So should 7-foot-1 rookie center Cheick Samb of Senegal, signed to a two-year contract by the Pistons after summer league play. The only pure center Fort Wayne selected in the expansion draft was 6-foot-11 Chad Bell, left unprotected by Colorado.
Roberson and Walker will man the point for Fort Wayne alongside Richardson and Famutimi in the backcourt and Mejia when he’s there. Any of those three players could also swing to small forward, where the Mad Ants selected Tyrone Sally in the seventh round and Armein Kirkland in the 10th.
Fort Wayne took three power forwards: Antonio Meeking in the fourth round, Mike Benton in the fifth and Badou Gaye in the sixth.
